{"id":4016,"date":"2025-02-01T00:21:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T23:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kobzar.be\/blog\/?p=4016"},"modified":"2026-02-05T14:29:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T13:29:37","slug":"benigni-amarsi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kobzar.be\/blog\/benigni-amarsi\/","title":{"rendered":"Roberto Benigni speaking"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Video<\/a>

Click \u2191 to watch<\/p><\/div>\n

A marvellous, heartfelt, profound speech of Roberto Benigni about love and happiness.<\/p>\n

I transcribed Benigni by ear from Italian, and then translated Roberto into English.<\/p>\n

This text is one of the strongest ever. Stronger than the original<\/em> Ten Commandments (=name of this performance on Rai 1). Listening to it<\/a> is a must. Grasping the message is difficult. Implementing the message is 100 \u00d7 times more difficult. But it is worth it!<\/p>\n

\n
From Benigni’s \u00abTen Commandments\u00bb broadcast on Rai Uno on 15 December 2014 \u2193<\/h6>\n

Il tempo passa… E il problema fondamentale dell’umanit\u00e0 da due mila anni \u00e8 rimasto lo stesso: amarsi!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Time passes… And the fundamental problem of humanity for two thousand years has remained the same: to love one another!<\/em><\/p>\n

Solo che ora \u00e8 diventato pi\u00f9 urgente, molto pi\u00f9 urgente. E quando oggi sentiamo ancora ripetere che dobbiamo amarci l’un l’altro, sappiamo che ormai non ci rimane molto tempo. Ci dobbiamo affrettare: affrettiamoci ad amare!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Only now it has become more urgent, much<\/em> more urgent. And when today we still hear repeatedly that we must love one another, we know that we no longer have much time left. We must hurry \u2014 let us hurry to love!<\/p>\n

Noi amiamo sempre troppo poco e troppo tardi \u2014 affrettiamoci ad amare, perch\u00e9 al tramonto della vita saremo giudicati sull’amore, perch\u00e9 non esiste amore sprecato e perch\u00e9 non esiste un’emozione pi\u00f9 grande di sentire quando siamo innamorati che la nostra vita dipende totalmente da un’altra persona, che non bastiamo a noi stessi. E perch\u00e9 tutte le cose, ma anche quelle inanimate come le montagne, i mari, le strade, ma di pi\u00f9, di pi\u00f9, il cielo, il vento, di pi\u00f9, le stelle, di pi\u00f9, le citt\u00e0, i fiumi, le pietre, i palazzi: tutte queste cose che di per s\u00e9 sono vuote, indifferenti, improvvisamente quando le guardiamo si caricano di significato umano e ci affascinano, ci commuovono \u2014 perch\u00e9? Perch\u00e9 contengono un presentimento d’amore, anche le cose inanimate, perch\u00e9 il fasciame di tutta la creazione \u00e8 amore e perch\u00e9 l’amore combacia con il significato di tutte le cose: la felicit\u00e0.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We always love too little and too late \u2014 let us hurry to love, because at the sunset of life, we will be judged on love<\/em>, because no love is ever wasted, and because there is no greater emotion than feeling, when we are in love, that our life depends entirely on another person, that we are not enough on our own.<\/p>\n

And because all things, even inanimate ones: mountains, seas, roads, but more, much more: the sky, wind, you name it: stars, even more: cities, rivers, stones, palaces \u2014 all these things, which in themselves are empty, indifferent, suddenly, when we look at them, become filled with human meaning, they fascinate us, they touch us \u2014 why?<\/p>\n

Because they contain a presentiment of love<\/em>, even inanimate things. Because the very fabric of all creation is love<\/em>, and because love<\/em> aligns with the meaning of all things: happiness.<\/p>\n

S\u00ec! La felicit\u00e0!
\nA proposito di felicit\u00e0: cercatela, tutti i giorni, continuamente! Anzi, chiunque mi ascolti ora, si metta in cerca della felicit\u00e0 ora, in questo momento stesso perch\u00e9 \u00e8 l\u00ec: ce l’avete, ce l’abbiamo perch\u00e9 l’hanno data a tutti noi, ce l’hanno data in dono quando eravamo piccoli, ce l’hanno data in regalo, in dote, ed era un regalo cos\u00ec bello che l’abbiamo nascosto, come fanno i cani con l’osso, quando lo nascondono. E molti di noi l’hanno nascosto cos\u00ec bene che non si ricordano dove l’hanno messo, ma ce l’abbiamo, ce l’avete!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes! Happiness!<\/p>\n

Speaking of happiness \u2014 seek it, every day, constantly! In fact, whoever is listening to me now, start looking for happiness right now, in this very moment, because it is there \u2014 you have it, we have it! Because it was given to all of us, it was given to us as a gift when we were little, it was given to us as a present, as a dowry.<\/p>\n

And it was such a beautiful gift that we hid<\/em> it, just like dogs do with a bone when they hide it. And many of us have hidden it so well that we no longer remember where we put it.<\/p>\n

But we have it \u2014 you<\/em> have it!<\/p>\n

Guardate in tutti i ripostigli, gli scaffali, gli scomparti della vostra anima, buttate tutto all’aria: i cassetti, i comodini che ce avete dentro… vedrete che esce fuori, c’\u00e8 la felicit\u00e0! Provate a voltarvi di scatto, magari la pigliate di sorpresa ma \u00e8 l\u00ec, dobbiamo pensarci sempre alla felicit\u00e0! E anche se lei qualche volta si dimentica di noi, noi non ci dobbiamo mai dimenticare di lei, fino all’ultimo giorno della nostra vita. E non dobbiamo avere paura nemmeno della morte: guardate che \u00e8 pi\u00f9 rischioso nascere che morire!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Look in every corner, on every shelf, in every compartment of your soul \u2014 turn everything upside down: the drawers, the bedside tables, everything you have inside… You\u2019ll see that it will come out \u2014 happiness is there!<\/p>\n

Try turning around suddenly, maybe you’ll catch it by surprise, but it’s there<\/em> \u2014 we must always think about happiness! And even if sometimes happiness forgets about us, we must never forget about happiness, until the very last day of our lives.<\/p>\n

And we must not even be afraid of death \u2014 just think: being born is riskier than dying!<\/p>\n

Non bisogna aver paura di morire, ma di non cominciare mai a vivere davvero. Saltate dentro l’esistenza ora, qui, perch\u00e9 se non trovate niente ora, non troverete niente mai pi\u00f9, \u00e8 qui l’eternit\u00e0. Dobbiamo dire “s\u00ec” alla vita, dobbiamo dire un “s\u00ec” talmente pieno alla vita che sia capace di arginare tutti i “no”, perch\u00e9 […] abbiamo capito che non sappiamo niente e che non ci si capisce niente, e si capisce solo che c’\u00e8 un gran mistero e che bisogna prenderlo come \u00e8 e lasciarlo stare, e che la cosa che fa pi\u00f9 impressione al mondo \u00e8 la vita che va avanti e non si capisce come faccia: “Ma come fa? Ma come fa a resistere? Ma come fa a durare cos\u00ec?”… \u00c8 un altro mistero, e nessuno lo ha mai capito, perch\u00e9 la vita e molto pi\u00f9 di quello che possiamo capire noi, per questo resiste.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We must not be afraid of dying, but of never truly beginning to live<\/em>. Jump into existence \u2014 now, here \u2014 because if you don\u2019t find anything now, you will never find anything again. Eternity is here…<\/p>\n

We must say “yes” to life, we must say a “yes” so full, so complete, that it can hold back all the “no’s”, because […] we have realised that we know nothing, that nothing can truly be understood, and the only thing we do understand is that there is a great mystery, and we must take it as it is and leave it be.<\/p>\n

And the most astonishing thing in the world is that life keeps going, and no one understands how it does:\u00a0“But how? How does it endure? How does it last so long?” That, too, is another mystery, and no one has ever understood it, because life is far greater than what we can comprehend \u2014 and that is why it endures.<\/p>\n

Se la vita fosse solo quello che capiamo noi, sarebbe finita da tanto, tanto tempo, e noi lo sentiamo, lo sentiamo che da un momento all’altro ci potrebbe capitare qualcosa di infinito, e allora ad ognuno di noi non rimane che una cosa da fare: inchinarsi.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If life were only what we understand, it would have ended long, long ago. And we feel it \u2014 we feel that at any moment, something infinite could happen to us.<\/p>\n

And in the end, there is only one thing left for each of us to do: bow down.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Roberto Benigni, 2014<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A marvellous, heartfelt, profound speech of Roberto Benigni about love and happiness. I transcribed Benigni by ear from Italian, and then translated Roberto into English. This text is one of the strongest ever. Stronger than the original Ten Commandments (=name of this performance on Rai 1). Listening to it is a must. Grasping the message […]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[9,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-4016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-repost","7":"tag-english","8":"tag-italiano","9":"h-entry","10":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kobzar.be\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kobzar.be\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kobzar.be\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kobzar.be\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kobzar.be\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kobzar.be\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kobzar.be\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kobzar.be\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kobzar.be\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}